At the very beginning of Hulu, we asked ourselves one simple question: What if?

What if we could help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, how and where they want it?

Since then, we’ve aspired to build a product that all our customers would unabashedly love. We’ve been focused on offering the world’s premium content. And we’ve been focused on becoming a global brand.

Today, we are taking a first, but important step to make good on our aspiration to serve customers all over the world. I am excited to announce that we have launched our first product outside the U.S.

Hulu is now officially available in Japan. Hulu’s first-of-its-kind service offers entertainment fans in Japan unlimited instant access to hundreds of premium feature films and thousands of episodes of popular TV shows from a variety of content providers, including CBS, NBCUniversal International Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company (Japan) featuring content from Disney/ABC Television Group and The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Subscribers can watch at any time across connected TV’s, gaming and entertainment consoles, blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets and PCs, without advertising, for ¥1,480 per month.

Starting at launch and in the weeks following, Hulu’s service will offer entertainment fans in Japan unlimited instant access to hundreds of premium feature films like Pirates of the Caribbean, Armageddon, Men in Black, Troy, and As Good As It Gets and more; and thousands of episodes from previous seasons of TV shows including 24, Bones, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives, Fringe, Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, Heroes, LOST, NCIS, Private Practice, Prison Break, and Ugly Betty and more.

And there is much more to come.

As we’ve done in the U.S., we will rapidly and continually add content to the service. The content lineup will only become more robust over time, including the addition of Japanese-produced content and content from across the Asian region in the near term.

We are equally proud of the user experience that the Hulu team has built for Japanese entertainment fans. We are offering an intuitive and fully localized product available in both Japanese and English, with many of the popular Hulu features from the U.S. incorporated into the experience.

Like the U.S. service, the Hulu service in Japan is simple and easy to use. One single subscription follows the user across devices. Without skipping a beat, users can start watching a show on their PC, switch to their smart-phone, and finish watching it on their internet connected TV. No matter when and where an entertainment fan wants to watch popular TV shows and films – whether it’s in the office, in the living room, or on the go — Hulu will be there:

At our launch event in Tokyo today, we also announced that we have entered into an exclusive mobile marketing partnership with Japan’s largest mobile network, NTT Docomo. Details of this relationship will be unveiled shortly. However, Hulu subscribers in Japan will be able to use Hulu on any mobile carrier or internet service provider on supported devices. There are no long-term contracts and no minimum subscription commitments.

We hope that all fans of film and TV in Japan will enjoy Hulu’s service. To celebrate our launch in Japan, we are offering a one month free trial to any new subscriber.

We are committed to the success of our efforts in Japan and future international markets. Hulu in Japan is 100% owned and operated, and our growing Japan team has been hard at work building and inventing in our new Tokyo office. We are in Japan for the long term, and excited to continue building our product for Japanese consumers.

As we celebrate the launch of Hulu in Japan, we are conscious that this is just the first of more markets outside of the U.S. for Hulu. We hope that you will stay tuned for more news regarding our journey around the world.

signed up and I’ll be a subscriber for a long time. I love how the videos are available subtitled in Japanese, although I noticed that the subtitles don’t make the jump across to the iPhone app. Thanks.

I’m a US citizen and I don’t think I can make a creadit card here.
Be that as it may, I heard many Japanese students don’t have a creadit card and we usually use bank transfer or convenience store payment to pay the bills like utility bills, electricity bills, or telephone/isp bills here.

Woopie doo! I tried to watch HULU here and just let me say WORTHLESS just another form of internationalism for you corporations and regionalism for us users like Patrick says. I would rather watch a turd than the crap your trying to flush us with. It will not work took my F’in money but did not work. It’s okay I did not need the money any way. I get OBAMA care. Take HULU and Jam it in your @$$. Thanks for screwing the american military. GREED GREED GREED.
!

We live on Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan with internet access through Americable. We are huge fans of your service and were heartbroken to see that we no longer have access to HuluPlus. Is there a plan in the works to allow US bases in Japan access? If so, can we suspend our accounts until we can use your service again. HuluJapan is not Hulu anymore for many military members that miss home. It’s not an option.

Already Contacted Hulu Support But am going To post anyway . Please allow access to Hulu Japan Through My Roku 2 even as a private channel it is frustrating to see the Huluplus logo on my screen but not access it .

I guess that you think that everyone should feel grateful for offering us poor out-of-the-loop gaijin your vaulted service here in Japan, but I for one am not. First, it doesn’t work if I want to access from a US website — real international of you — and if I try to leave a comment on your CS site, it bombs my browser. Just another example of internationalism for you corporations and regionalism for us users. Thanks!

The language of closed captions varies for different shows. Most shows provide Japanese closed captions; however, some shows may have only English closed captions.

Our goal is to provide subtitles for all contents on both site and devices (Japanese at least), and meanwhile increase the English subtitle database as we are expanding our library of closed-captioned content. It’s possible that some content do not have subtitles due to temporary technical issues or content issues, but we’re working hard to bring subtitles to all videos.

Will the Japanese version be able to translate to English? I am an American living in Japan and I cannot read the instructions in Japanese. I would love to be able to access my favorite TV shows from the states that do not show up on Japanese cable.

Thanks for getting in touch with us. We’re incredibly excited about our recent launch in Japan. At this time U.S. accounts are unable to access the Hulu Japan service, and vice versa. Our international streaming rights have not changed for our content, so users outside of the U.S. will be unable to view any content on ( http://www.hulu.com ).

If you have any questions about the Hulu Japan service, please feel free to contact their support team at ( http://www.hulu.jp/support/contact/form ). If there are any further questions that I can address, please let me know.

HULU is going to have to step up their game here in Japan if I am going to keep the service. Currently, they are largely streaming programmes already available via domestic satellite services. Granted, you can watch them on-demand rather than waiting for them to arrive in the schedule but the truly interesting content is listed as ‘coming soon’. It’s early days so I am remaining confident that the site will be updated frequently and will begin to carry some unique content worth 2000 yen per month. If coming-soon titles remain in limbo for an extended time, I will cancel my subscription and wait for the service to mature. I adopted HULU on Day One to show my support for a good streaming service. I don’t need a service that charges me to provide content I am currently getting elsewhere.

If HULU surpasses my expectations, however, I would consider cancelling my satellite subscription.

I like the idea of expanding in japan but hulu faces many problems, I’m currently paying for the service but what is lacking is the choice of movies you can watch streaming on your pc vs over a roku or similar device but whats odd is who to say someone wont hook up a pc to the tv and stream the stuff they are blocking on other devices like bluray or roku.

Also hulu is for sale to the largest bidder at the moment and according to the news it could be sold soon for the right deal and that might be a good thing but who to say this japan thing will work out with another company at the helm.

I have been seriously thinking of doing away with hulu due to the fact I have other services with netflix and blockbuster and the content is much better but lacking in some TV shows. I have a lot of choices and I’m not so sure I will keep this service after its sold.

I live in Seoul Korea and am very interested in Hulu. We have access here, but only on the military post. Please let me know who I need to contact to get more info. Thank You for taking a step out side of the box.

Just took a look at it.
Very nice interface (very quick, light, smooth) … much better than Gyao!

But,…
why do we have to pay over $15 for this much inferior version?

Most TV drama episodes seem more than 3 years.
Where is glee, Castle or Chuck, BTW?

Plus, no animes, sports, and DramaFever???

Very dissapointed…

Besides, no bank transfer payment or convenience store payment for the fee? Even Paypal?

I’m a US citizen and I don’t think I can make a creadit card here.
Be that as it may, I heard many Japanese students don’t have a creadit card and we usually use bank transfer or convenience store payment to pay the bills like utility bills, electricity bills, or telephone/isp bills here.

Thanks for your post. This deal doesn’t directly affect the content available in the United States, but we already have Zatoichi on our site ( http://www.hulu.com/zatoichi-the-blind-swordsman ) as well as many other Japanese pieces of content. Take a look around.

Congratulations on the launch! I have no doubt you’ll do well in a country where there is great demand for US-produced television. As an American (with a Japanese wife) who has a keen interest in Japanese television, do you know of anyone serving customers going the other way? Japan > United States?

I’m a Canadian living in Japan, so this is pretty much right up my alley. I signed up and I’ll be a subscriber for a long time. I love how the videos are available subtitled in Japanese, although I noticed that the subtitles don’t make the jump across to the iPhone app. Thanks for making Japan your first international stop.